Whitfield County officials said a controversial rezoning request for land off Dug Gap Road will not be included on the agenda of Monday’s Dalton-Varnell-Whitfield County Planning Commission meeting.
The commission meets at 6 p.m. in the courthouse. The commission makes zoning recommendations to the city councils of Dalton and Varnell and to the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners.
In a press release Thursday, the county said Seneca Equity Partners of Atlanta has withdrawn a request to rezone three parcels totaling 24.69 acres from low-density, single-family residential to high-density, single-family residential. This is the third time the county has announced the request has been withdrawn. The site is in the unincorporated part of the county.
On Jan. 12, a county press release said the request had been removed from the agenda for the commission’s Jan. 22 meeting. Later that day, another county press release said the request had not been pulled. The next day, Jan. 13, a third press release said the request had indeed been removed from the agenda.
More than 100 people attended a “stop the rezone” community meeting at Fellowship Bible Church on Jan. 8. Opponents cited concerns about the development’s impact on traffic on the two-lane road and on Dug Gap Elementary School as well as its possible impact on the value of their homes.
The developer’s application for rezoning said it planned to build up to 160 single-family, townhouse homes on the site, which is currently undeveloped.